Fractured Frazzled Folk Fables and Fairy Farces

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A Sap's Fables covers the first thirteen pages of the book. These stories are not to be confused with Philip Moss's 1996 A Sap's Fables: The Lion at the Pond and Other Tales. Fourteen fables are parodied here in adult, sometimes obscene, fashion. I find the transformations frequently creative; at their best, they might remind one of Bierce or Thurber. Those who are offended by four-letter words would do better to take a pass on reading this volume! Some of the other humor is repeatable here, like rhymes and plays on words. An example of the first comes from the city mouse in TMCM: I guess that simple country mice know little beyond rice and lice to be concise (1). Two examples of the latter come together in BW when a quip to the jokester shepherd comes from a villager holding a nine iron and a baloney sand wedge (2). The shepherd retorts I always wear two pair of pants in case I get a hole in one! The wolf in sheep's clothing kills the sheep by having them die laughing over his bad humor (4). The crow who has dropped stones into the pitcher has been drinking gin without knowing it and exclaims This well water tastes really well! Soon we read Oh well, all's well that ends well! (6). The crow in FC announces after dropping the cheese that it is tainted with arsenic (7). My biggest surprise comes in GA when the rejected grasshopper eats the ants (9)! At the end of MSA, the miller takes the pole and beats all his critics. He then steals their asses and sells them for a handsome profit (12)! The book's second and much longer section carries on with myths, legends, and folktales, presumably presented in the same vein. There tends to be a full empty page separating the stories late in the book.